


All the Ships that Drank the Sea

by hanekawa



Category: Kamen Rider Blade
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 18:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/298838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanekawa/pseuds/hanekawa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's always a price for saving the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All the Ships that Drank the Sea

.

.

“Kenzaki… turned into Joker.” Kotaro says, his tone tries and fails to make it into a question. That’s why Kenzaki keeps using the King form despite (because of) all the warning. That’s why Kenzaki keeps fighting even when his body’s all worn out. That’s why Kenzaki keeps—

That’s why Kenzaki doesn’t look as haunted anymore—when he realizes there’s still a way to spare Aikawa’s life.

Even if he had to sacrifice his own humanity in the process.

 _(“Aikawa Hajime is an Undead! If he had to die, then he had to die!”_

 _“But Kotaro,” Kenzaki had said, “he’s also our friend.”)_

Kotaro _knows_ Aikawa Hajime means trouble from the start.

“Aikawa Hajime is still in Kurihara’s Café. Wanna go beat him up?” Shiori says, in a voice that makes it clear she’s baiting him.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” He scoffs. “If beating someone would solve our problem, I’d have done it along time ago.”

Shiori raises an eyebrow.

Kotaro ignores her.

“But it sure is strange, don’t you think?” Tachibana-san says. “Kenzaki’s never been one for subtlety; yet none of us realized what it was he was trying to do.”

Kotaro looks down. You see a side of a person, and you think you know all about them. He had tried to stop Kenzaki, thinking Kenzaki only did it because he wanted to kill all Undead. But Kenzaki had brushed him off; Kenzaki had brushed him off, without so much raising to his taunting or answering his questions.

No, Kenzaki might not be one for subtlety, but he’s also never been one to tell when it really matters.

“At least,” Shiori says, “at least this way, we know he wouldn’t be so reckless with his own life again, right?”

Ah. Because if Kenzaki is dead, then Aikawa Hajime would be the sole survivor—repeating the whole End-of-the-World thing all over again.

And this time, there would be no Kenzaki to stop it from happening.

“Among other things.” Tachibana-san agrees.

Kenzaki always says that he wants to save the world, and. And that’s why he becomes Blade—so that he could defeat the Undead, who wanted to destroy this world Kenzaki wishes to protect.

So just how ironic is that, that in order to save this world, Kenzaki had to turn into an Undead—a being he used to despise _(until Aikawa Hajime)_?

“It’s lonely, though.” Kotaro says, because it bears mentioning.

As the price ( _punishment_ ), now Kenzaki can’t even get close to Aikawa—someone he clearly values.

“Ah.” Shiori says. “It is, isn’t it.”

It’s not a question.

.

.


End file.
